Month: March 2017

I never knew how a band could kick off an EP release until last night. Catch Fire launched a brand new EP on Friday and I was Lucky enough to attend the Rock City gig. I have already labeled Catch Fire as Nottingham’s brightest Pop Punk star and i fully stand by that, to be well and truly honest they blew my squirtle themed socks off.

The band really looked in their element last night loving every second of it, the audience shared that emthusiasm, from a mini mosh pit to screaming the lyrics to every song.
They played an acoustic number for us, one they said they only play at Rock City called “Introspective pt. II” from the first EP, for me that was the highest point, seeing the smile on the bands faces as the crowd emotionally sang along to a very personal song, it simply made my night.

It all felt very personal, as if you were involved in a secret club watching what could be a massive band for years to come, to use a cliché, it felt as if we were witnessing a bit of history.

If you can see Catch Fire i can’t say it enough but see them, learn the lyrics and scream them back at the band that has worked so hard to reach this point. I plan on reviewing the EP so stay tuned for that.

Bit of context to start the post, I didn’t post on Sunday because I had a very important gig last night and i thought i’d postpone the post till tonight to review it.

Blossoms really are the next great British Band, stemming from clear inspirations all the way from the Smiths to The Coral and Oasis, Blossoms continue to blow my mind. My first exposure to Blossoms had to have been “Charlamagne” long before the album and my love for them grew after seeing them headline “The Quarry” on sunday night of Y Not now almost a year later and both Standard and Deluxe versions of the album bought how did they sound now?

Bloody brilliant to put it bluntly. The show man ship is top notch and last but not least the talent between all five lads. On stage it is almpst screamed at you that these are five mates from Stockport just enjoying the time on the road together.

Honestly if you can get down to a Blossoms show you need to imediately, if you want to know what the future holds for british bands you need to support them if you love indie music see them!

(Bit of context this was written before the hiatus for One Direction and before Zayn left but to me the point is still relevant and they will get back together it’s just a matter of when)

(p.s. This was meant for sunday but it’s currently 23 minutes late)

We all know who both of these are The Beatles are one of the greatest creations to ever come out of the UK, next to Yorkshire puddings. However over the past few years a new group have appeared and become one of the biggest boy bands ever, in a short space of time and I have the pleasure of putting them up against each other, simply out of interest. It has become a cool thing to do “hating on” One Direction because they are just a bunch of “pretty boys” who make “easy pop music” but if you asked some of them “do you like The Beatles?” I’m sure some of them would say “Of course I do”. Now I don’t have any clear evidence for this but I know it’s probably true. However when you tell them that actually the early Beatles albums and tracks were simply pop music written and produced to entice girls into buying their records, so you can see where the similarities are starting to appear.

So from that we start to look at singles directly taking “I Want To Hold Your Hand” from The Beatles and “What Makes You Beautiful” from One Direction. “I wanna hold your hand” was a massive success for the group going number one in the UK knocking their own song off the top “she loves you” It was also one of the big reasons the “British invasion” even existed, bands such as “The Rolling Stones” and “The Kinks” can thank the four liverpudlians for that. Traveling forward in time all the way to 2011 One Direction made their single debut with “What makes you beautiful” going straight to number one in the UK and number four in the US making One Direction another group that can thank The Beatles for US success. Both singles are very similar when you look at them from a critical point of view, both about a girl of no name so that their audience can imagine it’s about them and both feature a group of young men harmonising with great voices. It’s a simple formula that goes back even further than The Beatles but it works and that’s what’s important.

Album wise it’s quite different, we’ve seen the end of The Beatles and we know there won’t be any more studio albums from them but with One Direction we still have years to come so we can’t fully judge them and how their music will evolve. So i’m going to go from pre “Revolver” as that’s when in my opinion The Beatles work started to become in the masterpiece end of the radar and they started to experiment with sounds and changed their style. So looking at albums like “Please Please Me” which is a great album is essentially a collection of well written pop songs, they knew who their audience were and they wrote for them. Looking at One Direction, they have upon writing this, written and produced four albums all essentially again well written pop music designed for a certain audience and have been extremely successful worldwide with each one causing what some would call a new “British invasion” on the rest of the world and let’s be honest they have represented us well on that front. As I was saying earlier we don’t know how One Direction will handle the next few years, there music is easy access now with the technology that we have so they can still sell a lot of records and singles but in terms of the music they produce from this point onwards, we simply cannot know. They might have a “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” up their sleeves and we could see them going against management and writing something quite risky and trying to break boundaries that they set for themselves just like The Beatles did, but I’m sure we can fully understand if they want to continue writing the music they do make. It really is something to think about.

(Bit of context – This is again another piece I wrote for the Chad this one made it on the site and I am still extremely proud of it, sorry for double posting today)

Nottingham’s brightest pop punk star shines again with Catch Fire’s latest release, after taking several hard listens to the song I can clarify that they have another brilliant track.

Catch Fire’s greatest element is the clear band chemistry that flows through them first beginning as Layby in 2013 they have continued to evolve and grow throughout the past year and months, going on a tour mid 2016 has enabled them to get a real taste of what I feel they can become. The track has the perfect example of melancholy lyrics with the emphasis on it’s fast paced tune that completes their usual oxymoron of bringing their pop punk music and bringing it hand in hand with a clear grunge mentality.

Catch Fire has a sense of pure originality and love for the music they create with the obvious and clear intentions to make a name for themselves, the nottinghamshire fivesome have clearly lived and breathed music and played with other musicians to finally come together and create something much greater.

This is a giant leap from the earlier EP “The Distance I Am From You” and even “Wild Things” and leaves me extremely excited for the new EP that is expected March 24th if any of the other tracks are anything close to this then you can be sure that it’ll be the hottest EP that Nottingham has seen in some time. “Guilty As Charged” is a perfect anthem that believe it or not for it’s genre is extremely catchy and you’ll be singing it without even noticing, the rawness of vocals gives a sense of fragility to the lyrics and helps the track be more accessible and enjoyable.

Overall this is a track that you need to listen too, Pop punk fans will love this but more importantly music lovers will love it, it’s the perfect example of a young band proving that they can make it in the industry by having a lot of talent and knowledge for the genre they most clearly love. Remember to keep your ear to the ground for the upcoming EP “A Love That I Still Miss” on March 24th

(Some context – I wrote this for my local newspaper “The Chad as my first published piece or so I thought, the Band sent off to receive a review and I was drafted to write it, I wrote it, sent it and it was “Lost” and I heard nothing about it so here is the review as I don’t think it’s fair they didn’t get any shout outs from “The Chad”)

After spending the last year playing pubs and clubs with cover songs, Derbyshire based band “Those Who Knew” are finally showing off their own sound with their debut single “Losing Touch”. It’s hard not to hear other bands in this song, from my very first listen I heard a touch of “Nickelback” which is something I thought I’d never have to say again. The band cites “Lower Than Atlantis” and “Paramore” as their biggest influences but I feel fans of the mid nineties alternative rock rise will be right at home here with a clear and definite sound of “Nickelback’s” “How You Remind Me” which to some might be a wonderful achievement but for others they might not want to hear something that sounds so similar.

For a fairly fresh faced band they have taken extreme care in honing their skills, the production value on the single is of chart quality and comes a long way from footage filmed on a phone in the back of the room, you really get to hear each individual’s talent shine throughout the track. Abandoning the genre is sometimes worthwhile doing for some Pop Punk bands when it comes to lyrics but here it feels almost forced to create a much more poppy sounding song, which confuses me as to who this is marketed towards, the lyrics are fairly straightforward and safe whilst the music is well grounded in its punk roots.

It’s an incredibly promising start from the young fivesome, this track will either go down as a great start for some or a minor miss for others, but still promising none the less and with a new EP on the horizon titled “Take It!” if you’re a fan of this genre it’s worthwhile finding out when they’re playing next in and around the Derbyshire area. The new single “Losing Touch” is available to buy on Itunes and stream on Spotify.

Why oh why am i starting this you ask? Because I like music and I wish to talk about it and I bloody well will if I want. I didn’t really fall in love with music very early, i was seventeen when I started my looking and searching for things I could feel in music and really fall in love with, I think a lot of it started with the “Beatles” and “David Bowie’s, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars” or maybe “Tame Impala” which ever it was I have a lot to thank them for. Little did I know that just around the corner I would discover the first love of my life soon after, I “met” “the Smiths” through “Louder Than Bombs” during 2014 thanks to my father and was forever enthralled prancing through my home town gayly was mind opening, never have I felt something for men than with that band, I can thank them for not just saving my life but starting it, i felt at home finally with the smiths they helped me through very hard parts of my life. Anyway I’m gonna talk about music and stuff over time on here so have fun. Bookmark me or something check back every sunday for new stuff and every so often random posts.